Polar Vantage V3, First Impressions
Yesterday my V3 arrived. Since then I’m wearing it continuously. Here’s my impressions so far. I’ll be comparing it to the Vantage V, which I was wearing until yesterday, doing all my trainings.
First off: the display is beautiful. It’s bright, it’s colorful, easily readable. A major upgrade and now on par with the best out there. It also shows that Polar did their homework with the processor below. Touch gestures are smooth with nice little touches (if you move from one view to the next by swiping with a finger, the watch face gets a bit smaller), the whole thing feels perfectly responsive. Compared to the slight sluggishness of the V1 this is a major upgrade. It’s fun to use this watch, to browse through all the data it takes about you. This is a key use case for such a watch, and it’s implemented flawlessly.
Second: this is still a sports watch, not a smart watch as Pebble, Apple, Google, Fitbit define them. There are 4 (FOUR) watchfaces. They are hard coded. There is no app store. If you want this kind of thing, go away. This is polar. We’re the hard core athletes who don’t give a shit about these toy things. (laughs a bit frustratedly)
But the few smart watch features it has, it has done properly. You can see what music is playing, even while training, you can skip back and forth. This was one thing I missed dearly when moving from the freshly google-owned Fitbit Versa to the Vantage V. Also it features basic notification support. Haven’t yet been able to find out whether it works properly with iOS messages (with the V, it didn’t — any app you categorized as “don’t send immediately but in a daily summary” would still appear on the watch, just to not be there in the phone, annoying).
Previews kept raving about the new sensor array. So far my impressions are, well, unclear to mixed. I have done two fruitless attempts to measure my blood oxygen level. I don’t know why this keeps failing. I’ve done an ECG, which worked, but somehow it doesn’t appear in the web UI or the app. Also have not found out what the point of it is. It supposedly has measured my sleeping body temperature, but needs three nights to show data. We’ll see.
Due to the rainy weather here I haven’t been able to seriously challenge the plethora of training related features it has. Not the hill splitter. Not the advanced GPS (I’m very much hoping that it picks up a signal much faster than the V — swimming in a lake was pointless unless you wanted to interrupt your swim now and then by hovering with one arm above the water surface for a minute or so).
One word about the overall looks: the watch is fairly big (47mm diameter), it is also fairly high (14.5mm). Still, it manage to look elegant, simple, smooth. I strangely do not have the feeling of carrying a bulky watch with me although the figures suggest otherwise. I much doubt the design decision to move from a metal band around the glass that protects it from scratches to a glass that is even slightly curved. Totally beautiful, but is is up to daily usage out there?
Straps: when I had my Fitbit Versa I was happily switching between different straps, so I’m pleased that the V3 now uses standard 22mm straps. The default silicone strap (mine is blue) feels very convenient and light.
Much to explore, much to try out. Will keep updating this post.